• Cyber security company SoSafe has been nominated for the prestigious German Founders Award and is one of the three finalists in the category StartUp.
• The German Founders Award is awarded by the magazine stern, the banking group Sparkassen, German television station ZDF, and Porsche, and honors the most successful start-ups of the past years.
• The SoSafe awareness platform trains employees continuously and interactively on cyber security and data protection – this is especially relevant in times of hybrid working.

The cyber security company SoSafe Cyber Security Awareness has been nominated for the German Founders Award 2021 and is one of the top three companies to enter the final. For the renowned award’s expert jury, it goes without saying: The Cologne-based company is one of the most successful German start-ups in recent years.

"We are very excited about being nominated. This also confirms how essential cyber security solutions are and shows once again that we are addressing a very relevant problem through our awareness platform," says Lukas Schaefer, Managing Director at SoSafe, and continuing, “We are very much looking forward to the award gala and are of course keeping our fingers crossed for the other nominees Sympatient GmbH and Yuri GmbH.

The awards ceremony will take place on September 14, 2021, at the ZDF in Berlin. After the award ceremony in 2020 had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, the event will be held in "hybrid" form this year.

Making employees strong for digital self-defense

The SoSafe platform trains and sensitizes company employees to cyber security, data protection and other compliance issues. For example, the platform simulates phishing attacks and provides responsible parties with data on the company’s level of risk. The focus is on employees and users’ behavioural change, because nine out of ten cyberattacks start with people.

"Cybercrime is becoming increasingly professional and is already the greatest technological threat to the global economy. The annual damage is currently estimated at over five trillion euros – and the view of how individuals are affected is particularly drastic", says Dr. Niklas Hellemann, Managing Director at SoSafe, and further outlines:

"Employees are by far the biggest gateway for hacker attacks of all kinds. That’s why our platform actively integrates them into the defense and thus demonstrably minimizes the risk. In this way, we protect value creation in Europe and actively safeguard jobs."

Strong founders aim for strong company growth

As a psychologist, Dr. Niklas Hellemann boasts expertise in learning and behavioral psychology having founded SoSafe in 2018 together with economist Lukas Schaefer and software developer Felix Schürholz. The team is as interdisciplinary as the founders themselves: from sales specialists and coding professionals to creative minds, 150 employees from 17 countries now strengthen the digital self-defense of companies and public organizations daily.

SoSafe is one of the fastest growing tech companies in Germany. 800 customers, including Merck KGaA, Vattenfall, Deutsche Bahn and Aldi, rely on the SoSafe solution and have more than one million employees in 30 countries have been trained with it. Next on the agenda is an international expansion and new products. For the founders, one thing is certain: a strong "human firewall" is the best way to combat the growing global threat of cybercrime.

About the German Founders Award (Deutscher Gründerpreis)

The German Founders Award is the most important award for outstanding entrepreneurs in Germany. The aim of the initiative is to promote a positive start-up climate in Germany and encourage people to become self-employed. The prize is awarded annually in the categories Student, StartUp, Up-and-Coming and Lifetime Achievement. Exceptional entrepreneurial achievements can be honored with a special prize. The German Founders Award is bestowed by the partners stern, Sparkassen, ZDF and Porsche, who have been committed to promoting entrepreneurship and the start-up culture since 1997.

For further questions please contact Mr. Florestan Peters via press@sosafe.